DOJ Sues New York Over State Law Restricting Masked ICE Agents
The litigation tests whether states can impose identity-disclosure requirements on federal immigration officers conducting enforcement operations — a constitutional question with implications for...
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the State of New York on Monday, June 23, 2026, challenging a state law that restricts masked federal law enforcement officers — specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — from conducting operations within the state, according to a complaint reported by the Washington Examiner. The DOJ argues the statute is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause and interferes with congressionally authorized federal immigration enforcement functions.
New York's restriction is one of at least four similar state-level measures the Trump administration is simultaneously contesting in court. The DOJ has filed or is preparing comparable actions against New Jersey, California, and Virginia, all of which have enacted laws or regulations limiting face coverings worn by federal immigration officers during public interactions, according to the Washington Examiner report. The precise statutory citation for New York's law and the docket number for the federal complaint were not published in the available source material; those details would be contained in the formal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
The administration's legal theory centers on federal preemption: that states may not impose requirements on federal agents that conflict with or obstruct execution of federal law, including 8 U.S.C. § 1357, which grants ICE broad authority to enforce immigration statutes. New York and the other named states have argued, in public statements, that the masking restrictions are public-safety and accountability measures allowing residents to identify officers. Neither the New York Attorney General's formal legal response nor a court scheduling order was available as of publication.
Separately, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week raising concerns about foreign-national access to federally funded national laboratories. The senators cited department data showing approximately 1,900 short-term visits and 1,300 long-term research assignments by Chinese nationals at the 17 DOE national laboratories during fiscal year 2024, according to the New York Post. The letter requests the administration restrict or terminate such access, citing national security grounds. The full text of the letter and the underlying DOE access data had not been released publicly as of publication time.
What remains unknown in the DOJ-New York litigation: the assigned federal district court judge, the specific docket number, any request for a preliminary injunction, and whether New York has filed an initial response. Those details would appear in PACER, the federal courts' public electronic records system, under the case filing. For the Cotton-Lee national laboratories letter, the specific DOE dataset cited by the senators, and any response from Secretary Wright, have not been made public; a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Energy would be the appropriate mechanism to obtain the underlying access records.